Parents group opposing East Ramapo lottery plan

“An East Ramapo parent group will keep their children from attending the first three days of school to protest the district’s eleventh-hour lottery for full-day kindergarten slots.

The group, Padres Unidos, said the three-day boycott is in response to the East Ramapo school district’s decision to hold a Thursday lottery to fill slots in four newly created full-day kindergarten classes.

“Keeping our children home is a very serious, difficult and extreme step, but we believe that, if some of us are suffering, all of us are suffering,” the group said in a statement issued late Friday. “Many of our families have been deeply offended that something as serious as kindergarten would be treated as a sudden lottery, as if it were a special prize.”

It called the lottery a flawed solution that is “pitting families against each other.”

Classes begin on Sept. 7.

The Spring Valley chapter of the NAACP said the lottery could have been avoided with better planning.

“We are deeply disappointed by the delay in implementing full-day kindergarten for all children in East Ramapo, which we believe could have been avoided,” the group said in a statement Friday. “After everything that parents in our district have been through, they deserve a smooth and inclusive start to the year, not an unexpected lottery that causes strife for families. Now that the timetable has been released, it must be followed strictly so that children can benefit from the state aid as soon as possible.”